Digital subscriber line (DSL) technology provides high-speed data transmission over a so-called “last mile” of “local loop” of a telephone network via copper twisted wire pair cable between residential and small business sites and telephone company central offices and remote terminals. There are various types of DSL such as asymmetric DSL, high bit-rate DSL, single-line DSL, very-high-data-rate DSL, integrated services digital network DSL, and rate-adaptive DSL having various transmission rates, switched circuit characteristics, and other known operation characteristics. These are collectively referred to as XDSL technologies.
In a simplified general view, a DSL system may be considered as a pair of communicating modems, one of which is located at a home or office computer, and the other of which is located at a network control site, typically at a telephone company central office or a remote terminal. The central office or remote terminal modem is connected to some type of network, usually referred to as a backbone network, which is in communication with other communication paths by way of routers or digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs). Through DSLAMs the backbone network is able to communicate with dedicated information sources and with the Internet. As a result, information accessible to the backbone network may be communicated between the central office or remote terminal modem and a customer site modem.
DSL applications may be served from central office and remote terminal locations by up to approximately 17,000 feet of copper twisted wire pair cable that may exist between the DSLAM equipment at a central office or remote terminal and a DSL modem at a customer site.
The twisted wire pair cable has been characterized by a length measurement known as Equivalent Working Length (EWL). EWL is used to determine insertion loss of a loop and thus determining a service information rate that can be supported by a loop corresponding with a pair of twisted wire cable. Determination of EWL is useful in installation of a customer site. EWL is defined by international and national standards.
An EWL can be determined given knowledge of loop makeup parameters including lengths, gauges, and positions of all splices and bridged taps. Loop facility assignment center system (LFACS) databases exist for storing the loop makeup parameters and loop characteristics. Loop parameters and characteristics include distances between “poles” and customer sites and distribution makeup such as style, type, and gauge of wire. Loop parameters and characteristics have routinely not been recorded, such that estimation or determination of loop length from database records would generate an inaccurate value. Therefore, inaccuracies in estimation of EWL exist in current loop determinative systems, using information contained in LFACS databases.
Currently one EWL determinative system that is used to determine loop length, and is referred to as a mechanized loop testing (MLT) system, includes a single-ended MLT switch. The MLT test system uses known capacitance properties of a copper loop and attaches a testhead to a working circuit and measures tip-to-ground and ring-to-ground capacitance from which loop length is derived. However, the MLT test system is incapable of accounting for gauge of wire used in a loop and thus cannot accurately determine EWL of the loop. Cable gauges may vary within a DSL circuit. Cable gauges typically range from 19 to 26, each having markedly differing EWL that cannot be determined by the MLT test system. Differences between EWL and measured loop lengths, from the MLT test system, can routinely be approximately 20% or more.
Another EWL determinative system uses training cycle of a baseband modem to infer electrical properties of the loop at high frequencies. This method has been referred to as a “Sapphyre” loop qualification system. The Sapphyre loop qualification system requires deployment of specialized equipment such as a voiceband modem to acquire measurements and determine whether a customer site is capable of receiving ADSL, which requires interaction between a telephony application and a customer so as to perform required measurements and tests. When a customer site is ADSL capable an ADSL modem is installed at the customer site.
An alternative EWL determinative method has been suggested including performing a single-ended capacitance measurement to determine high frequency insertion loss of a loop. This method requires that a loop be removed from service and specialized test access hardware and software be installed within a central office. A disadvantage with performing a single-ended capacitance measurement is that cable gauge size cannot be determined since cables of different gauges have similar capacitance values, making them difficult to distinguish between. Different gauged cable experience different amounts of insertion loss. Also, for a loop that is electrically coupled to a bridged tap, false capacitance values may be measured. When a capacitance measurement is performed, capacitance of the loop including cable coupled to a bridged tap is measured, causing an incorrect capacitance measurement. Thus, the above-described EWL determinative method is incapable of accurately determining insertion loss for a loop.
Also, the EWL of ADSL circuits that are served from remote terminals, terminals at potentially large distances from central offices and between central offices and customer sites, cannot be measured without installation of specialized test equipment at a site of the remote terminal. Installation of the specialized equipment at the remote terminal site is time consuming and costly.
The above-proposed EWL determinative systems and method measure insertion loss of high frequency signals indirectly. The EWL determinative systems cannot measure it directly since they do not have instrumentation at both ends of the loop under test. Although, the above-mentioned EWL determinative method uses instruments at both ends of a loop it measures the loss at low-frequency voiceband of approximately 3 kHz, instead of at an ADSL frequency band. As with capacitance measurements, cable length and gauge cannot be accurately determined by measuring insertion loss at the low-frequency voiceband.
It would therefore be desirable to develop a system and method of determining loop length that supports ADSL circuits, performs measurements at ADSL frequencies, does not require use of specialized equipment beyond the ADSL equipment required for regular deployment, and does not require a priori information pertaining to circuit loop makeup.